April 1901

April 1, 1901 (Monday)

• Emilio Aguinaldo, formerly the president of the Philippine Republic, signed an oath of allegiance to the United States, nine days after his capture, in return for his release from incarceration. The pledge took place at the Malacañang Palace in Manila, at the office of the Military Governor, U.S. Army General Arthur MacArthur Jr.
• The 1901 United Kingdom census was taken of all persons alive in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the beginning of that day, defined as those "returned as living at midnight on Sunday, March 31st". The total population of the England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland was reported as 41,458,721, broken down as England and Wales ; Scotland and Ireland.
• Thirty thousand iron workers in Scotland walked off of the job in a strike seeking a guaranteed maximum eight-hour day.
• Sir Frederick Lugard, the British Governor of Northern Nigeria, issued the Slavery Proclamation, outlawing the future purchase or sale of slaves, and prohibiting the return of a runaway slave to his master. However, the decree did not grant freedom to people who were enslaved, other than those persons born after April 1, 1901, and women who were concubines of a master could continue to be traded. Slavery would continue to be legal within the Kano State of Northern Nigeria until 1926, and the institution would continue to exist in the absence of enforcement of the proclamation.
• General Leonard Wood, the American military governor of Cuba, refused to certify the selection of Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso as the Mayor of Havana. The Havana city council had voted 12–10 for his appointment.
• The United States Steel Corporation, which had been founded on February 25, began operations.
• Mrs. Elizabeth Moore was arrested by police in Baltimore after attending a professional boxing match. Mrs. Moore wanted to see lightweight boxer and future champion Joe Gans in the ring, despite a societal taboo against women joining the all-male audiences that were allowed to watch the bouts. She purchased third row seats after disguising herself as a man, and was arrested by the police captain on the premises and charged with violating a state law against "masquerading in male attire", released only after her husband posted a $105 bond. She was fined $20 and costs for the infraction.
• Born: Whittaker Chambers, American, activist, member of Communist Party USA and editor of the Daily Worker magazine before he testified in the perjury trial of Alger Hiss; in Philadelphia

  April 2, 1901 (Tuesday)

• The United Kingdom enacted a law establishing the military court system, with jurisdiction over acts committed by the Boer guerrillas within South Africa during the Second Boer War. Unlike the Special Court that had previously handled serious crimes committed by rebels in British-controlled areas, the military courts, which began hearing cases on April 12, had "unlimited powers of decision and the authority to pass the death sentence". Executions, usually done in public to set an example for would-be rebels, were carried out by hanging or by firing squad.
• The Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship, a charitable service organization that currently provides assistance to persons within the British Commonwealth, was founded in London by Lady Violet Cecil. Its original vision was "patriotism, belief in racial hierarchy, respect for the monarchy, Christianity and the armed services, and admiration for the past and present British heroes who exemplified those values".
• The London County Council voted to purchase 225 acres of land in Tottenham, at the cost of $7,500,000, to create cottages to accommodate workingmen's family housing sufficient for 42,000 people.
• Born: Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, British state leader, first and only Governor-General of the West Indies Federation
• Died: Will Carver, 32, American outlaw, in a shootout with Sheriff Elijah Briant in Sonora, Texas

  April 3, 1901 (Wednesday)

• The first elections in Denmark to use a secret ballot took place for the Folketing, the lower house of the Danish Parliament, and left the ruling Højre party with only 8 of the 114 seats, while increasing the lead of the Venstre Reform party to 76 seats. Under Denmark's political system at the time, the King appointed the konseilspræsident who selected his cabinet, regardless of who controlled the Folketing. While outnumbered 106–8 by the three liberal parties, the conservative Højre party had 42 of the 66 seats in the upper house of the Rigsdagen, the Landstinget that was selected by electors. Because of the overwhelming defeat of the conservatives in the popular elections, King Christian would accede to demands that the government led by Hannibal Sehested should resign, and would appoint J. H. Deuntzer as the new premier.
• Died: Richard D'Oyly Carte, 56, English impresario

  April 4, 1901 (Thursday)

• Mankulumana, chief adviser to Dinuzulu, king of the Zulu nation, led newly armed Zulu troops to assist the British Army in an attack against the Boers in the Vryheid district of the South African Republic. The Zulu force was accompanied by Dinuzulu and Colonel Herbert Bottomley of the British Army's Imperial Light Horse Regiment.
• The circus Sarrasani was founded in Germany in Radebeul by Hans Stosch-Sarrasani. Internationally famous prior to World War II, the German circus traveled the world. After its permanent theater was destroyed in the Dresden bombing, the circus would be reorganized in Argentina, by Stosch-Sarrasani's widow, as the Circo Nacional Argentino, and operate until 1972.
• Born: George Moorhouse, English-born American soccer player and captain of the 1934 United States men's national soccer team who became the first native of England to appear in a FIFA World Cup tournament game; in Liverpool. Moorhouse, a left back for the New York Giants soccer team of the American Soccer League was one of six natives of the United Kingdom to appear for the U.S. team at the inaugural World Cup in 1930, a competition which did not include England. The other five British players were from Scotland.
• Died: George T. Anderson, 77, American army officer, commander of the 11th Georgia Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War, police chief of Atlanta

  April 5, 1901 (Friday)

• The Allegheny College basketball team, with a 6–1 record against other colleges, and 13–2 overall, met the Yale University team, which was 5–0 against colleges after bouncing back from a string of losses against non-college teams, in a game at Meadville, Pennsylvania. In what the local paper described the next day as "the greatest victory in her basket ball career", Allegheny defeated Yale, 21 to 12, in what was "a fast, well-played game" under the rules at that time. "The result of this game establishes Allegheny as equal to, if not better, than any other college team in the country," the Pittsburgh Post noted the next day. Nevertheless, the Helms Athletic Foundation would, in 1957, retroactively declare that Yale had been the best team of 1901.
• Philander C. Knox was named as the new United States Attorney General after being appointed to succeed John W. Griggs. He would be confirmed by the United States Senate and took office four days after his appointment.
• Born:
• * Hattie Alexander, American pediatrician and microbiologist who developed the first effective remedy for illnesses caused by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, diseases that had a high fatality rate among infants and young children; in Baltimore
• * Chester Bowles, American diplomat and politician, 22nd United States Under Secretary of State in the Kennedy administration before being removed for opposing further U.S. involvement in South Vietnam and Laos, 78th Governor of Connecticut; in Springfield, Massachusetts
• * Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai, Indian mathematician; in Nagercoil, Madras Province, British India

  April 6, 1901 (Saturday)

• The wreckage of the U.S. Navy collier Merrimac, which had been blocking the entrance to the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, was successfully destroyed and removed. The ship had been deliberately sunk on July 2, 1898, during the Spanish–American War to block the Spanish fleet of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete from leaving the harbor.
• The painting Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, painted by Thomas Gainsborough, returned to England 25 years after it was stolen, as the steamer Etruria docked at Southampton with C. Moreland Agnew on board. With the help of detective William A. Pinkerton, Agnew had recovered the painting in Chicago on March 27.
• The New York Wanderers won the U.S. professional basketball championship, finishing in first place in the seven-team National Basket Ball League in their final game, a 36 to 21 win at Millville, New Jersey, against the Millville Glassblowers.
• Born:
• * Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian religious and social activist, beatified by the Catholic Church in 1990; in Turin
• * Yong-do Lee, Korean religious and social activist who broke with the Korean Presbyterian Church after attempting to reform it
• Died:
• * George M. Smith, 77, British publisher, creator of the Dictionary of National Biography, and the literary journal The Cornhill Magazine
• * George Wellesley, 86, British naval officer, 54th First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy

  April 7, 1901 (Sunday)

• Theatrical producer David Belasco, who owned the rights to the stage play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, finalized an agreement with Giacomo Puccini, authorizing the composer to adapt the plot to what would become an oft-performed Italian language opera, Madama Butterfly, with a premiere in 1904.
• Émile Loubet, President of France, officiated at the opening of the lavish Gare de Lyon restaurant of the Paris station of the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée Railway. The new establishment was as much of a museum as it was a restaurant, with 41 original paintings and "scores of life-sized statutes and reliefs", all celebrating travel by train.
• Born: Andre Trocme, French missionary; in Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont. He and his wife, Magda, would be recognized with the Righteous Among the Nations honor by Israel for their role in saving Jews from extermination during The Holocaust.
• Died:
• * Josephine Louise Newcomb, 84, American philanthropist, founder of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College as a women's college to supplement the all-male Tulane University in New Orleans
• * Eden Upton Eddis, 88, British portrait artist
• * Buz Luckey, 31, American train robber in the Nathaniel Reed gang. at the federal prison in Columbus, Ohio